TASM (Time And Space Machine)
by TheManFromMudos
Summary: My name is John Smith. Yes, it is a very average name. But my life is anything but average. It all began when I met this Vykker called The Professor, with his machine that could travel through space and time. Of course, I wasn't going to pass up an opportunity like that, was I? (A crossover with a twist: Every episode's a new Crossover! - Main Crossover is Doctor Who/Oddworld)
1. Episode 1: Xenomorphs and Xenophobes

**ASHBRIDGE INHABITANTS PRESENTS…**

 **AN** _ **AL**_ **IVE EXPERIENCE…**

 **T*A*S*M (TIME AND SPACE MACHINE)**

 **EPISODE 1: XENOMORPHS and XENOPHOBES**

 _It all started way back when. I can't remember how far back exactly. But I remember it like it was yesterday. I'd lived on Earth since I was born, never even left it's surface until I was in my late teens. I was about 18 when I first ventured into the ocean of stars above me, on a recreational visit to a station known as the Sevastapol. Luck hadn't smiled upon me on that trip, though. Or maybe it had, depending on how you look at it._

 _I remember when the first people began to leave the Sevastapol. Oh, sure, they said they just 'wanted a change of scenery' or that they'd simply 'had enough of station life'. But we all secretly knew the truth. I'd only been there a couple of months and even I'd heard tales that would make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. More and more people had departed the station week in and week out for several months. Until one day, the station commanders came to us, told us that they had news. Bad news. Then everyone left._

 _The gentle throbbing of engines rang out through the still air aboard the station. Not a sole was anywhere to be found. Except for me, of course. Everybody else had gone, or at least tried to, when they'd heard the news. That the rumors were true. The disappearances, the noises from below decks, what else could it have been? But alas, this seemingly perpetual state of almost-silence was suddenly interrupted. A sharp, piercing, screeching groan of a sound echoed through the corridor. I recall myself following the direction of the noise to discover it's origin. Little did I know, from that point on, nothing was going to be the same for me again…_

Rounding the corner at the end of the corridor, I discovered… nothing. There was nothing there. Nothing that could make a noise, at least. But then I noticed a locker. One which I'd never noticed before. It looked almost identical to every other locker aboard the station, except for the fact that through the grate on the door, a bright light could be seen, beaming out into the corridor. I was surprised that I'd not noticed the light until now, as it was astonishingly luminescent. Reaching out with one hand, I slowly proceeded to open the locker. With my fingers just inches away from the handle, I froze with fear. Not because I was scared to open the locker, but because I was suddenly aware that I was not alone.

A dark shadow was cast over me, and the sound of deep, throaty breathing filled the air. I shuddered, not even daring to turn around, to face what was behind me. But I already knew what it was. It was too late for me now. Swallowing my fear like a bitter pill, I spun around to look at the abomination that was about to end my life. A tall, black alien, shimmering in the light from the locker, it's mouth dripping with saliva, it's silver teeth standing out like a sore thumb in it the dark abyss of it's mouth. It growled, a low and animalistic noise, and opened it's mouth wide. Then, the creature lunged towards me, but before either of us knew what was happening, I'd been dragged back into the light of the locker behind me, the door slamming shut to keep the monstrosity out.

"Well that was a close one, eh?" An enthusiastic voice said from behind me. I turned around to see a short, wrinkled creature with several arms and legs. His head was quite bulbous, his skin was purple, and his teeth were rotten. "You could have ended up that creature's lunch." He said, in a much more stern tone.

Climbing to my feet, I began to babble incoherently: "I was… who was… God, this is a big locker!" The purple creature - well, man I guess – simply watched as I poured out line after line of nonsense. After a while, I felt quite faint, and fell to my knees. The man helped me up and took me over to a chair where I could rest.

"Calm down, my boy," He said as he sat me down in the chair. "It'll all be fine. Now, allow me to introduce myself. I am The Professor, and –"

"You're an alien?" I asked.

"Yes, that's right," The Professor replied. "I'm a Vykker from the planet Oddworld, Constellation Reference: CanM-04. And you are?"

"John," I told The Professor as calmly as possible. "John Smith."

"Wow," he replied. "That is an unbelievably average name. I must use that." He then proceeded to walk over to a vast panel of controls and levers, flipping various switches as he walked around the console.

"What is this place?" I asked, regaining some of my confidence.

"Well, John…" The Professor began, "This is the TASM. That stands for Time and Space Machine. Before you ask anything else, let me clear a few things up. Yes, it looks like a locker, at least for the moment. Yes, it is much larger on the inside. And Yes, it can actually travel through time and space. If you want proof, here you go." With that, he went back to the door of the locker and flung it open.

"No!" I yelled in fear, and cowered behind the chair I was previously sat on. But to my astonishment, there was nothing out there. We weren't even in the same corridor. Even more amazing, I could here voices. Human voices. There were still people on board the ship. I ran out of the locker and greeted everybody I ran into. It had been literally weeks since I'd been in contact with such a huge amount of people. It was almost as if they didn't know yet. About the alien. About the disappearances. It was like… like… we had traveled backwards in time.

I darted back through the crowd to the locker, it's door still wide open. The Professor stood outside it, looking on as I said 'Hello' to every passerby. I pointed straight at him.

"You!" I said, frustrated. "What did you do? What did that thing, that TARZAN do?"

"It's TASM." The Professor chuckled. "And it took us through time." It seemed unbelievable. How could we have traveled through time. And more importantly, what was the point?

"Well," said The Professor, as if he had heard my mental question. "My scanners show that on this very day, two months ago, an unidentified life form appeared on board Sevastapol station. Now John, if I told you that you'd have died if I'd left you for the alien back there, would you believe me?"

"Of course I would, Professor." I answered truthfully. "You saved my life. I'm indebted to you."

"It's very nice of you to say that, John." The Professor smiled, his crooked teeth a pale shade of yellow. "Well, since you're in my debt now, you wouldn't mind returning the favour, would you?"

"That depends," I replied. "What kind of favour?"

"You're not going to like it." He assured me. "We're going to save the alien."

Bolting down the corridor at great speed was harder than you would imagine. There were quite a lot of people in the way, after all. But we were both so caught up in the heat of the moment, we couldn't help but try.

"So what are we going to do?" I shouted to The Professor over the voices of the people around us.

"The important thing to remember is that this alien isn't a killing machine. Ok, technically it is. But it only eats to survive. We just need to stop it eating humans."

"Oh, no problem." I retorted. "We'll just give him a salad, then!"  
"This is no time for jokes," The Professor bellowed seriously. "A lot of people could be dead very soon if we don't intervene." I gave him an apologetic look and carried on running.

"Besides," he said, "I was thinking more like a fruit salad!"

Approaching the end of the corridor, The Professor began to slow down, eventually turning down a flight of stairs to the Transit Station. He ran over to a terminal mounted on the wall of the station concourse and typed in some sort of code, then ran back up the stairs. 'Not again,' I thought to myself as we set off back down the corridor. When we reached the opposite end we both bounded back into the TASM and set off.

"Where are we going now?" I asked. "Shouldn't we stay here and stop the alien?"

"No, no." The Professor replied, flipping a couple of switches in the process. "We're going to need help if we want to take this thing down."

"Down? I thought we weren't going to kill it?"

"We aren't," He assured me, "But we're going to need someone who knows what they're doing."

"So you don't know what you're doing?" I gasped.

"Of course not, not a clue! In fact, you're lucky I even found you!"

The TASM slowly grinded to a halt as we landed. The Professor once again swung the door open and stepped out. I was surprised to discover upon stepping out, though, that the TASM now looked like a vending machine, and the door was a maintenance panel on the side.  
"Camouflage." The Professor nodded. I simply nodded back. After all, I was in no position to question anything that was going on right now. I realised quickly, though, that we were no longer aboard Sevastapol station. We were in a building, on the ground. We were back on Earth. But I could tell by the look on the Professor's face that we weren't going to be staying for long. He asked me to wait by the TASM whilst he went to get help, so I obeyed, and spent quite a while trying to figure out whether I could use it as a real vending machine or not.

After about ten minutes, The Professor came back, and he brought with him a woman.

"John," The Professor began, "Meet Amanda Ripley. Amanda, meet John Smith."

"John Smith?" The woman inquired. "That's very ordinary, isn't it." I nodded, and The Professor continued.

"Amanda here works for… Let's just say 'The Company'. About 15 years or so ago, her mother went missing. She believes that it has something to do with the 'Xenomorph' that's onboard Sevastapol."

"Xenomorph?" I queried.

"Yes, it can change shape between generations. Depending on the species of the host it hatches from." The Professor informed me, which kind of put me on edge. "Anyway, Amanda here's just aching to get revenge, so let's get to it, shall we?" And with that, he climbed into the vending machine.

"Is he mad?" Amanda asked, puzzled."

"Yes, I believe he is." I informed her.

"What even is he?" She continued.

"No idea." I said. "Vykker, or something." Then the two of us followed The Professor aboard the vending machine. I mean TASM.

The trip back to the Sevastapol was awkward. It was weird not knowing whether we were traveling through time, or space, or both. I looked over at The Professor and gave him a look which said 'Does she know?' He simply stared down at the floor of the TASM.

"Amanda…" I began. The Professor clenched, knowing what I was about to say. "Has The Professor here told you what we're planning to do with this… 'Xenomorph'? Because I doubt it's what you're thinking of."

"Ok, that's quite enough of that." The Professor interjected, stepping between us. He then went over to the doors of the TASM and stepped out once more into the corridors of Sevastapol. Post-everyone leaving, that is.

"Now then." He said, turning to face us. "Here we are!" He gestured to the room behind him. Amanda and I looked, discovering it to be a vast warehouse full of shelf upon shelf of crates.

"What's in them?" I asked.

"Meat, I think." The Professor replied. "Enough to feed every crew member and every passenger onboard Sevastapol for years. It better be anyway, or else my plan won't work?"

"What exactly is the plan, then?" Amanda asked. Surely now The Professor would reveal that we were in fact planning to _not_ kill the Xenomorph. However, he still managed to avoid saying this, preferring to assure Amanda that the meat was purely bait to attract the creature.

About half an hour later, the three of us had managed to lay out a trail of meat stretching right from the storage warehouse to the TASM, which, as it turned out, had it's own highly inescapable prison cell in it. The Professor grinned and later explained that he was excited to use his prison cell for the first time. Anyway, after laying out the trail, it was Amanda's time to shine. She was the expert on Xenomorphs, it seemed. Apparently, after her mother had gone missing she'd begun searching for answers. She'd discovered that The Company already knew of the existence of this new species, and wanted the crew of the Nostromo to capture it for them to use as a biological weapon. Obviously, she hadn't taken this news lightly, hence why she was trying to kill one of the creatures now, or so she thought.

"Ok, John," said The Professor once Amanda was out of earshot. "You remember the plan?"

"Yes, Professor, but-"

"Listen to me, John." He replied solemnly. "I know that you want to tell Amanda we aren't going to kill the alien, but we can't. If she knew, she wouldn't have agreed to it in the first place. We'll tell her when the time is right."

"And what are we going to do with the thing when we've caught it?" I inquired. "You said it changes shape depending on the host it hatches from. Surely that means it needs live prey, not chunks of meat that were intended for people to eat."

"Don't worry about that, John." The Professor assured me. "Just stick to the plan and I'll deal with the alien.

Just then, Amanda came sprinting around the corner at the end of the corridor. She bolted past us and into the TASM, shouting "Found him!" as she passed. That was our cue. The Professor hid behind the TASM door, ready to shut the creature in. I ran into the console room, down a long corridor to the prison cell. Amanda would wait by the control panel, to lead the Xenomorph to it's inmate cell. With everyone in position, we waited. And we didn't have to wait long.

The silence and suspense of the moment was shattered by the roar of the Xenomorph at the end of the corridor. It strode down the corridor as a cheetah after a gazelle would. Then it forced it's way through the tiny locker door and into the TASM. I heard Amanda's rapid footsteps as she came towards the cell with the alien in tow. She ran through the first door of the cell, then out the second door. She was safe. The alien ran through the first door of the cell, I pressed the 'lock' button. She was trapped. Mission accomplished. 'Well done, John,' I said to myself. 'Not too shabby.' But it wasn't quite over yet. Now came probably the hardest part of our mission so far: Convincing Amanda Ripley that we should let the creature go.

I waited with Amanda in complete silence for a couple of minutes. Well, apart from the sounds of the Xenomorph growling as it tried to free itself from it's impenetrable cell. After a while, The Professor came bundling down the corridor towards us, a huge grin across his shriveled face.

"Well done, everyone!" He chuckled. "A hundred percent success, I'd say!"

"What do you mean a hundred percent success?" Amanda queried. Oh, dear. She walked over to the prison cell and looked into it through the feet-thick glass. "That thing's still alive in there, isn't it?"

"Yes!" The Professor replied enthusiastically. "We did it! We kept it perfectly safe!" Amanda's face fell as she turned to look at me for confirmation.

"I'm sorry, Amanda." I said. She turned away and walked back down the corridor to the console room. I followed here, pleading her to listen.

"Amanda…" I attempted.

"What?" She said back through gritted teeth. "What is this? You work for The Company or something? Want to take that thing back to Earth and weaponise it?"

"No, it's… It's complicated." I replied. "That thing in that cell, that Xenomorph. It's just an innocent creature."

"It's a killer!" Amanda yelled, tears beginning to stream down her face. "It killed my mother!"

"It did what it had to for survival, Amanda." I said, trying to remain calm. "It just needs to food, sustenance." But she refused to listen to my explanations.

"It's a cold-blooded killer, John." She repeated.

"And what does that make you?" came a voice from down the corridor to the prison cell. The Professor appeared, a serious look on his face.

"What does that make you, Amanda Ripley?" He repeated. "You humans, what do you eat? Cows, pigs, chickens? You slaughter these innocent creatures because you have to! Because that's how you survive, that's how any species survives." Amanda's solemn look began to soften.

"Now I'm not saying that the human race should all become vegetarians, although if you want to, that's fine by me." The Professor continued, beginning to win Amanda over. "But how do you justify the killing of animals lesser than yourself? Survival." He gestured to the corridor behind him.

"That creature down there, Amanda, is exactly the same as you. It hunts to survive. That's all it knows, that's all it can do to stay alive. Now whether you're with me or against me, I am not allowing you to kill that creature. Do you understand?"

Amanda had fallen silent. She gave a meek nod, and slumped down in the chair next to the console. The Professor glanced over at me, and I nodded back at him. He'd done it. He'd convinced Amanda Ripley that the creature that killed her mother deserved a second chance. I knew then that he was everything but ordinary. His TASM vouched for that, as well. But now was not the time for contemplation. Now was the time to take Amanda home.

"Well, here we are." The Professor said when we landed. "Earth. Now Amanda, you might discover you've been gone for a few hours from the planet's perspective, but it shouldn't be that big of a deal. Now you need to swear to me that you'll tell no-one of the events that unfolded here today, understand?" Amanda simply nodded. She stepped out of the vending machine-shaped TASM and shut the door behind her. Just as we were about to leave, she poked her head around the door one final time.

"John?" She asked, and gestured towards the prison cell. "Say goodbye to her for me, won't you?" I nodded, to which she gave a quick smile. And with that, Amanda Ripley was gone, back to her workaday life on Earth, as if nothing had ever happened.

Now for the Xenomorph. The TASM took us next to a jungle planet, which according to The Professor was uninhabited by human life. The alien would get plenty of food, and nobody would get hurt. Perfect.

"Now then, John…" The Professor said as we headed back to the TASM. "I suppose you'll want dropping off at home, too."

"Perhaps…" I began. "Or maybe… I could come with you?" The Professor simply smiled, and gestured to the TASM.

"Be my guest." He said happily. "But I must warn you, John. Once you agree to travel with me in this TASM, who knows where it could take us. There's no guarantee we'll always be safe, that I can always bring you back. You understand that, don't you?"

"Professor," I said solemnly, resting a hand upon his shoulder. "I understand." And with that, I followed The Professor into the TASM, shutting the door behind me. Then off we went, through time and space.

 **YOU HAVE BEEN WATCHING T*A*S*M**

 **WRITTEN, EDITED and PRODUCED by THEMANFROMMUDOS**

 **PUBLISHED by FANFICTION**

 **STARRING:**

 **THE PROFESSOR ….. VYKKER © ODDWORLD INHABITANTS**

 **JOHN SMITH as HIMSELF**

 **AMANDA RIPLEY ….. © 20** **TH** **CENTURY FOX, SEGA and CREATIVE ASSEMBLEY**

 **A MAN IN A COSTUME as THE XENOMORPH ….. © 20** **TH** **CENTURY FOX**

 **PROPS and SETS:**

 **SEVASTAPOL STATION ….. © SEGA and CREATIVE ASSEMBLEY**

 **THE TASM ….. TARDIS © BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION**

 **THE COMPANY HEADQUARTERS ….. © 20** **TH** **CENTURY FOX**

 **TITLECARD ARTWORK:**

 **TARDIS IMAGE © BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION**

 **VYKKERS LABS LOGO © ODDWORLD INHABITANTS**

 **M*A*S*H STYLISATION © COLUMBIA BROADCASTING SYSTEM**


	2. Episode 2: Feral Ghouls & Sterile Fools

**ASHBRIDGE INHABITANTS PRESENTS…**

 **AN** _ **AL**_ **IVE EXPERIENCE…**

 **T*A*S*M (TIME AND SPACE MACHINE)**

 **EPISODE 2: FERAL GHOULS and STERILE FOOLS**

"Where to now, then?" I asked, the grating noise of the TASM almost drowning out my words.

"Earth." The Professor replied, whilst frantically pressing buttons and throwing switches. "I've had a distress call from a place called Boston in Massachusetts, USA. Heard of it?"

"Yeah, I've heard of it." I answered. "But I've never been to America before."

"You're joking?!" He laughed. "You lived on the Sevastapol, in space, and you've never visited America? Never crossed that measly little ocean?" I shook my head and The Professor chuckled again. Stepping away from the control panel, he beamed up at the TASM's central column as the machine slowly ground to a halt.

"We're here." He said, walking over to the door of the TASM. Flinging it open, the short, wrinkled Vykker stepped out. I followed, only to find that we were stood in a dark, cold room, most likely a basement. The TASM had disguised itself as a cabinet, which was battered and falling apart. Very sophisticated.

"What time is it?" I asked, looking around the pitch-black room.

"2287, Earth Time." The Professor replied, obviously thinking I'd meant what year it was. "Although by Galactic Federation standards it's… 495024." I wondered for a moment what classified as a 'year' in galactic time. But my thought process was soon interrupted, as without warning, a door to our right was thrown open, casting a bright light into the darkness of the room. I could see figures in the light, three of them to be exact. One of them walked into the room and flipped a switch on the wall.

The entire room was suddenly bathed in light, allowing me to see it properly for the first time. It _was_ a basement, as it happened. Looking around, I noticed that the cabinet which the TASM had disguised itself as was one of many in the basement. It really was good at camouflage.

"Who are you?" One of the figures said, startling me. For a second I'd forgotten they were even there. I looked over to see an average sized man, with two much larger men behind him. The larger men carried guns that resembled pistols, but were seemingly made from bits of wood and piping.

"Who are you?" The average-looking man said once again. "I'm warning you, I've sent for the Minutemen. They'll be here any second."

"We're-" I began, but The Professor interrupted.

"That's us, yes." He said. "We are the Minutemen. I am The Professor, and this here is John Smith." He then nudged me discreetly, and I gave a sheepish wave.

"That's a pretty ordinary name, isn't it?" the man asked. I nodded. "And what's wrong with you?" He pointed a finger at The Professor. "My God, I've never seen anyone so horribly irradiated before."

"Oh, he's not irradiated." I interjected. "He's a Vykker."

"A what?" asked the man, a puzzled expression on his face.

"Not important." The Professor concluded. "Anyway, who are you? And why have you sent for us?" The man seemed reluctant to talk at first, but after several moments passed in complete silence, he gave in.

"Ok, I'll tell you." He began. "My name is Charlie Slast. Above ground is my farm, Golden Meadows. My family and I have lived out here in the Wasteland in peace for many years."

"Wasteland?" I whispered to The Professor.

"Let him finish." He whispered back.  
"Excuse me?" Charlie asked, overhearing our little conversation.  
"Oh, nothing Mister, uh, Slast." I answered. "I just wasn't sure what you mean by 'the Wasteland', that's all." The Professor slapped a hand against his head. Obviously, I wasn't shaping up to be a very believable Minuteman, whatever that was.

"Don't mess with me, kid." Charlie scowled. "You came here to help us, right? So get it done." He signaled for the two men behind him to move, creating a path for The Professor and me to follow him out of the room. I gave The Professor an apologetic look for my stupidity, but he ignored me. Soon, the three of us had reached the top of a relatively short staircase. I could now see the vibrant light of the sun shining down on us, through what I assumed was a window. The light was pure and magnificent, evidently the weather outside was beautiful. As we reached the top of the stairs, I hoped to get a glimpse through the small window.

As it turned out, it wasn't a window. In fact, it was a hole. A large(ish) hole in the wall of the house we were in. And it wasn't the only one either. The entire house was covered with these holes. It was practically in ruins. I didn't really get a chance to look through any of the holes as we walked, since me and The Professor were trying to keep up with Charlie's fast-paced walking. But every slight glimpse I did get didn't exactly fill me with glee. In fact, I started to notice why this place was affectionately known as 'the Wasteland'.

The front door of the house was relatively intact, although there were more holes in the wall surrounding it. Charlie walked up to the door and pulled it open. At first, a thin shaft of sunlight was visible, which grew as the door opened wider. When it was fully open, Charlie stepped out. The Professor urged me to follow, and did himself follow behind me. As I put my head out into the open, at first I saw nothing. The light of the sun was far too bright for me to make anything out. However, I soon adjusted to the light, and for the first time since we'd arrived, I had a chance to truly visualise the Wasteland of Boston.

The land before me provided enough shock to kill a man. Sheer devastation in every direction. Not a single living tree in sight. The grass beneath our feet was dry and brittle, and covered most of the landscape, which was as desolate as it could possibly be. In the distance, at the other side of a large body of slightly green water, were collapsed buildings. Enormous skyscrapers reduced to rubble, rows of houses flattened to the ground. It looked as if some kind of horrible accident had occurred here. Now I knew why it was called the Wasteland.

"There's our problem." Charlie said, pointing towards a small hill to our left. Atop the hill were a small group of people, about a dozen or so. Confused, I asked Charlie what the issue was with these people.  
"Oh, they're not people," was his answer, "Those, my friend, are Feral Ghouls."

"Feral Ghouls?" I inquired. "What does that mean?"

"Jesus Christ, have you been dwelling in a Vault for the last 200 years?" Charlie asked jokingly, although his face appeared serious. "I thought you said you were with the Minutemen? I'd have thought you'd have to deal with these guys all the time." I was still massively confused. Feral Ghouls? Minutemen? Vaults? What on Earth he was talking about, I had no idea.

Just then, the sound of a bullet rang out through the air. The holder of the gun was not visible, but I did notice one of the people- I mean 'Feral Ghouls'- on the hill suddenly collapse. Another shot rang out, and another Ghoul fell. Then another. And another. Bullets continued to fly until every last Ghoul on the hillside had been shot. Charlie looked on in surprise, as did The Professor and I, as people- actual people this time- emerged on the top of the hill. From this distance, no distinguishing features were visible, but I could see at least six people standing around with long, musket-like weapons. I realised then, of course, that _these_ were the Minutemen. They must be. Charlie said he'd called the Minutemen to help with the Ghouls, well they'd helped. I thought. The only logical explanation was that these adventurers were the Minutemen I'd heard so much about in the ten minutes since I'd arrived.

Within a few minutes, the group of people was within a close enough distance that I could observe their features. One man, who appeared to be the leader of the group, wore a long cream-coloured coat, down almost to his knees, and a Stetson hat with one side upturned, of the same colour. The other members of the group wore much less flashy clothing. Some had polo shirts and tattered jeans; others had flannel shirts and dungarees. When the group were close enough to communicate with, Charlie shouted to greet them.

"Preston, thank God you've come!" He called. The leader of the group simply nodded back. That must be Preston, I thought to myself. The group were now right in front of us, and Preston held out a hand to shake my own.

"Preston Garvey." He said as we shook. "And you are?"

"Oh, my name's John Smith." I replied.

"John Smith?" He asked. "That's a little average, isn't it?" I sighed and replied with a simple 'yes'. Then Preston turned to The Professor.

"And who are you, Sir?" He asked. The Professor introduced himself as such, then Preston remarked: "I'm very sorry about what happened to you. Genetic mutation can be a drag, huh?" For some reason, everyone seemed to think that The Professor was some kind of freak of nature, whilst nobody ever seemed to notice that he was in fact not human at all.

"So, Preston." Charlie began, walking over to the Minuteman's side. "I take it that these two are in fact _not_ with you. He shook his head in reply, to which Charlie did not look pleased. I simply stared down at the ground. The Professor, however, was not at all fazed by the revelation. He didn't seem to care what anybody thought.

"Well, then." Charlie continued, turning to face me and The Professor. "Why don't you tell us who you really are?"

"Look, we're nobody." The Professor interjected. "And does it really matter anyway?"

"Yes, it matters!" Charlie scowled. "You appear out of thin air in my basement, pretend to be Minutemen and then when I found out you're not, you say 'does it matter?'"

"My point is we're on your side." The Professor offered. "Would you have let us live if we'd told you the truth in the basement?" Charlie's face softened, and he mumbled some vague reply.

"Alright, then," I began. "Now that we've cleared that up, and you know that we're not from around here, could someone _please_ tell me what the heck is going on here?" Charlie, Preston and the others behind him all looked confused.

"Not from round here?" Preston asked. "Are you Vault Dwellers?"

"Not exactly, no." I replied. "Look, can you please just tell me what happened to this place? This city? The Earth?" Preston sighed, still appearing confused.

"There was a war." He finally answered.

"Nuclear?" The Professor asked.  
"Yes." Preston answered. "The Great War of 2077. I wasn't alive back then, in fact I don't know many people who were. It was over 200 years ago, after all. Some people survived the fallout by hiding underground in government Vaults. But most others died."

Preston held out a hand to the city behind him, indicating the sheer catastrophe of post-war Boston. "This is the Commonwealth," He said. "Sure, humans like us live all around here. But at this moment in time, this place belongs to the mutants. Plants, animals and people that were irradiated by the bombs way back at the start of the war. Those Feral Ghouls were just one example. But now that they're out of the way, we can be off." He turned to the other Minutemen and gestured for them to head home.

"Wait." The Professor suddenly announced. He'd been awfully quiet for a long while, but he seemed to have noticed something.

"I don't think this is over." He said. "I think it's bigger than this." He pointed towards the hill where the Ghouls had stood not long ago. Everybody turned to look, and saw that there were four people on the hill, dragging away the bodies of the dead. We looked on as the corpses were pulled away over the hillside. Preston and the Minutemen were off immediately, with Charlie in tow. I looked over at The Professor, who gave me a quick nod, and we both followed.

No more than twenty minutes later, we had managed to follow the trail left behind by the strangers to a cave at the base of a small cliff. On top of the cliff was a large factory, with a long sign reading 'Big Al's Bargain Factory' on the side in red letters. I was still trying to take in my surroundings, but Preston Garvey and his team, being more seasoned professionals than myself, went straight ahead into the cave. The Professor scuttled along behind them, but at a distance great enough that I could talk to him without us being overheard.

"Professor," I whispered, walking up beside the hobbling Vykker. "This is still all so confusing."

"Why's that, John?" He asked, whilst simultaneously looking around at the walls of the dark cave.

"Well, I'm from Earth." I explained. "Late 21st Century. There was no war in 2077."

"Really?" He inquired. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I- Of course I'm sure!" I snapped. "Do you not think I would have noticed a global nuclear conflict?"

"Well, perhaps it's not the same Earth." The Professor postulated.

"Not the same Earth?" I asked. "There's only one Earth, unless I'm very much mistaken."

"Not so, I'm afraid." He assured me, before walking ahead to catch up with the others. Unbelievable. How could he say something like that and then just end the conversation?

A few minutes of wandering around in the dark later, light became visible at the end of the cave. It seemed as though we were getting somewhere. Preston and his team had stopped up ahead, peering through an opening into an enormous room. I caught up and looked out into the room. It was a huge, round room with tall concrete walls and a cast iron floor. Beneath the floor, something was moving, although it was hard to make out what as we were so close to the ceiling of the room. There was, however, a staircase that lead all the way down to the floor from our position, but the men we'd seen earlier, dragging away the Ghoul corpses, were still making their descent. It would be safer to wait until they reached the bottom before we acted.

As the four figures reached the bottom of the staircase, one of them left the Ghoul he was dragging and opened a hatch in the iron floor beneath his feet. All four men then continued to drop the corpses they had been dragging into the hatch. A swarm of live Ghouls began to crowd around the dead, ripping them apart within seconds. They were feeding them.

"They're keeping Ghouls?" One of the Minutemen said, to which another replied: "Who'd do something like this?"

"I don't know," Preston said, ending the discussion, "But we're sure as hell going to find out."

With this, the smartly-clothed leader of the Minutemen stood up and began to sneak down the stairs. Apparently, the aim was to get as close as possible to the men below before they noticed us. This way, we'd have a much fairer fight, if it came to that. The idea made sense, truth be told. However, the execution of the plan was not well received. This was partly because The Professor, not having actual feet on any of his three legs, per se, put one leg straight through the latticed stairs and fell down on top of us. The din was loud enough that the men below instantly saw us, and sprung into action. One of them began shouting commands at the others, and another ran to the wall of the room and pressed a large red button on the wall. Sirens began to blare and doors began to open up at the bottom of the room, from which more people came, every single one of them armed with pistols, rifles or shotguns.

"Oh, crap!" Preston yelled, signaling to the other Minutemen to ready their weapons. All that The Professor could offer in the situation was a rather sarcastic 'Sorry'. Within seconds, bullets were flying back and forth through the air, although the Minutemen's muskets seemed to be firing lasers rather than bullets. Even Charlie had pulled out a ten millimeter pistol, and was assisting in the fire fight that was erupting around us. All I could do was try not to get shot.

To my left and to my right, bullets ricocheted from the walls of the room. I witnessed a couple of the Minutemen suffer fatal wounds, before falling over the railings of the high staircase. As they hit the ground, their bodies were whisked away beneath the iron floor, to feed the hungry Ghouls below. I looked over at The Professor, who was clearly not enjoying himself. He gave me a look that said 'We should have gone back to the TASM'. I nodded in agreement. However, just as the battle was showing no signs of relenting, all fell silent. I peered over the edge of the metal walkway, still stiff with fear, only to discover that below us was… no-one. Not a soul remained alive on the ground. The Minutemen had triumphed. The battle was over. Or so we thought.

From somewhere deep within the bowels of the building, a faint groan could be heard. The Professor, being the most inquisitive member of the group, was the first to follow the noise, before tripping and falling once again. However, soon we had all managed to safely reach the bottom of the room. The Ghouls beneath us now drowned out any conversation, some of them reaching up through the gaps in the grating, desperately trying to grab their next meal.

We walked down a long tunnel at the side of the room for quite a few minutes before we successfully discovered the source of the noise. We walked into a large executive office, and noticed a man on the floor, writhing in pain. I rushed to help him, but it seemed too late. A bullet had torn straight through his leg just above the knee, and he was bleeding profusely. I would have preferred to comfort the man in his final moments, but Charlie had other ideas. A gunshot rang out throughout the corridor as a bullet split the man's head clean in half.

I knelt beside the man in silence for a few moments, not sure what to think. The last half and hour had been filled with so much senseless killing that I was having a hard time trying to process everything. My heart was racing, my head pounding, my palms sweating. I could only stand it for so long. After that, I allowed myself to gently slip away from consciousness, away from the harshness of this bizarre world I was in.

When I awoke, I was surprised to discover myself layed comfortably in bed. I'd like to say it was one of those 'I woke up and it was all a dream' situations. But sadly not. I was in fact aboard the TASM, which according to The Professor had thousands of bedrooms within it's potentially infinite walls. I got up and headed to the console room, where I found The Professor doing what he did best: throwing levers and pressing buttons.

"Oh, hi John." He said when he noticed me. "You were out for quite a while there."

"What happened back there?" I asked. "After I fainted, I mean."

"Well, the guy that we found on the floor of that office? Turns out that was a man by the name of Big Al. You may have noticed the sign before we entered the cave." I nodded. "Anyway, him and his men called themselves the 'Cleansers of the Commonwealth'. That's not how I'd describe them, though. Long story short, they were planning to eliminate everyone in the Commonwealth, systematically with their army of Feral Ghouls."

"So that's why they were feeding them up in that huge room?" I remarked.

"Yes." The Professor replied. "But we managed to stop them, didn't we. And every single one of those Ghouls has now been put out of it's suffering. I know I usually disagree with that kind of stuff, but under the circumstances-" He hesitated, and declined to continue for quite some time.

"Professor?" I asked after a long and awkward silence. He nodded for me to continue, so I did. "That place, that Earth. You said it wasn't the same Earth that I was from. What did you mean by that?" The Professor sighed, then came and sat beside me on the bench next to the control panel.

"John," He began, as if he was about to have a man-to-man conversation with a son. "A lot of people think that there are an infinite number of dimensions, universes. That's false. The truth is there is only one true universe, which is itself infinite. That means that if you travel far enough, you can find anything. Whatever is true of your Earth is untrue for an infinite number of other Earths, and that which may seem like the work of fiction is actually happening, right now perhaps, somewhere out there." He got to his feet and went back over to the control panel. He flipped a few more switches and we began to take off.

"Basically, John," He continued, turning to face me once again. "Anything that your imagination could possibly conceive, and more, is waiting out there somewhere. So, where do you want to go?" But before I could answer, the console room was thrust into darkness, then was bathed in deep red light.

"What's going on?" I asked, but The Professor was too busy. He was suddenly flipping switches and running around the console frantically. The TASM began to jerk about and sway from side to side.

"Something's happening!" The Professor shouted over the siren which had just begun to wail.

"Oh, really?!" I shouted back, annoyed by this Vykker's strange talent for pointing out the obvious.

"Someone, or something rather…" He yelled, "Is pulling us in." He grabbed the console with one arm and pulled up a large television screen. An image flickered briefly on it's surface. Pointing out the obvious once again, The Professor simply said: "And it doesn't look happy." Then we crashed.

 **YOU HAVE BEEN WATCHING T*A*S*M**

 **WRITTEN, EDITED and PRODUCED by THEMANFROMMUDOS**

 **PUBLISHED by FANFICTION**

 **STARRING:**

 **THE PROFESSOR ….. VYKKER © ODDWORLD INHABITANTS**

 **JOHN SMITH as HIMSELF**

 **CHARLIE SLAST and THE SETTLERS at GOLDEN MEADOWS**

 **BIG AL and THE CLEANSERS of THE COMMONWEALTH**

 **PRESTON GARVEY and THE MINUTEMEN ….. © BETHESDA GAME STUDIOS/BETHESDA SOFTWORKS**

 **THE FERAL GHOULS ….. © BETHESDA GAME STUDIOS/BETHESDA SOFTWORKS**

 **PROPS and SETS:**

 **THE COMMONWEALTH/WASTELAND ….. © BETHESDA GAME STUDIOS/BETHESDA SOFTWORKS**

 **GOLDEN MEADOWS and BIG AL'S BARGAIN FACTORY**

 **THE TASM ….. TARDIS © BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION**

 **TITLECARD ARTWORK:**

 **TARDIS IMAGE © BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION**

 **VYKKERS LABS LOGO © ODDWORLD INHABITANTS**

 **M*A*S*H STYLISATION © COLUMBIA BROADCASTING SYSTEM**


	3. Episode 3: Incredibles and Incapables

**ASHBRIDGE INHABITANTS PRESENTS…**

 **AN** _ **AL**_ **IVE EXPERIENCE…**

 **T*A*S*M (TIME AND SPACE MACHINE)**

 **EPISODE 3: INCREDIBLES and INCAPABLES**

Upon opening the doors of the TASM and stepping out, I noticed that what had felt like a crash landing had actually resulted in a pretty smooth touchdown. We were at the side of a very busy road, and the TASM had cleverly disguised itself as a parked car. The strange thing was that you could see straight through the car via the windows, but once the door was open the console room was visible. I was trying to comprehend this when The Professor emerged from a door at the opposite side of the car.

"Where are we?" I asked. The Professor was hesitant to answer, apparently looking around at the scenery in an attempt to find out.

"Well, I can safely conclude that it's another Earth." He eventually offered.

"Again?" I sighed. "What's your fascination with the Earth? Or Earths, should I say?"

"I didn't bring us here." He answered. "She did, remember?" He put a hand on the TASM as if it were a pet of his.

"Fair enough." I said. "But why did… 'she' bring us here?" Perhaps The Professor could answer that question, perhaps not. But he didn't at the time, as he was already walking away down the street. Once again, I was amazed by the complete ignorance of the people around him, none of whom ever seemed to notice his… well, him.

As I jogged to catch up with the eager Vykker, I saw that he had in his hand a small device similar to a mobile phone. The device had a relatively large screen, which had what seemed like a radar display on it. I walked up to The Professor to inquire.

"Professor," I began, "Where exactly are we going?"

"I'm not sure, John." He replied truthfully. "This tracking device is, in theory, supposed to home in on extraterrestrial abnormalities."

"Extra what now?" I asked, puzzled.

"Aliens." He explained. "Anyway, anything not of this particular Earth, apart from me, you and the TASM, should show up on here. Problem is, I'm getting hundreds of readings. Thousands even."

We soon came to a junction in the road, which lead to a small housing estate. The houses were all very modern-looking, and none seemed suspicious in any way. But The Professor was adamant that something was going on. "They're not quite aliens," He kept saying, "But they're not quite human." I was completely clueless as to what that could mean, but I was sure I'd soon find out. When we came up to a house seemingly like all the rest, The Professor told me to knock on the door and find out what I could. I suggested that knocking might be a little too obvious, but he disagreed.

"So what do I say?" I asked as I approached the sleek, black door.

"Um…" The Professor pondered, "Tell them… Tell them you're from BEN, and you have reason to believe there are aliens on the premises."

"Who's Ben?" I asked, confused and slightly curious.

"Not who, what." The Professor answered. "It's the Bureau for Extraterrestrial Nvestigation. If they have one on this planet."

"Nvestigation?" I remarked. "Don't you mean investigation?"

"Will you just knock on the door?" The Professor snapped, so I did. He stood beside me confidently, making no attempt to hide his figure, as usual. I gave three stern knocks on the door and we waited. Soon, I heard a lock click and watched as the door was slowly drawn open.

A thin yet average-height girl, around her mid-teens by the looks of it, was stood in the doorway. She had long, flowing black hair, huge, deep blue eyes. Her face appeared soft and gen-

"Can I help you?" She asked, snapping me out of my trance. She suddenly appeared quite impatient.

"Sorry about that." I answered, suddenly quite self-conscious. The Professor elbowed me and nodded for me to speak.

"I'm J- Doc- Prof- I'm John Smith." I said. "I'm from the, um… BEN, I think, and I have reason to believe that there are aliens on the premises."

The girl looked extremely confused, but also seemed somewhat on edge. "Just a second." She said, turning to go back indoors. "Dad!" She called. A few moments later, a man appeared at the door. He was a huge, muscular person with broad shoulders and bulky arms. He sent his daughter back inside and shut the door behind him as he stepped outside.

"Who are you?" He asked. "Are you from the Government?" I nodded, and introduced myself as John Smith from BEN.

"John Smith?" The man asked, and I knew what was coming next. "That's a pretty average name, isn't it? And who's the purple guy?"

"Oh, this is my assistant." I smiled, and The Professor scowled at me. "May we come in?" The man was reluctant at first, but soon opened the door and allowed us into his home.

"My name's Robert Parr." He explained as we walked into the living room. "This is Helen, my wife." He gestured to a brown-haired woman sat on a sofa watching television. Two children sat beside her, one of whom was the daughter who'd greeted me at the door. I tried to resist fixating myself on her, but my eyes were seemingly drawn towards her.

"These are my kids." Robert continued. "Dash, he's twelve, and Violet, sixteen. We have a toddler as well, but he's at a friends'." I smiled awkwardly at the two children, both of whom were too fixated on the television to even notice me.

"How do you do?" Helen asked, getting up from the sofa to come and greet us. "Who are these people, honey?" She whispered to Robert, but I heard her quite clearly.

"They're from BEN." He explained to her. "John Smith. And assistant." He gestured. The Professor looked even more annoyed.  
"Don't worry, Mrs. Parr, we're simply here to… 'Nvestigate'." I chuckled. The joke was apparently lost on her, though. "Now, Robert." I said, attempting to sound confident. "Could we talk somewhere more private, please?" He nodded and lead The Professor and I down a hallway towards a small door.

"So, Mr. Smith," Robert began when we reached the door. "You're from BEN, huh?" I nodded, and he continued. "How old are you?"

"18, almost 19." I told him. "And before you ask, I started studying at a very young age."

"Okay…" He replied. "And what clearance are you?"

"Oh, I'm level twenty… four." I told him.

"Really? That high?" He remarked. "Well then, I guess I can let the two of you in on my little secret." He stepped aside and pushed the door behind him open, allowing the two of us to step in.

The room we entered was truly spectacular. The walls were coated with posters and cartoon comic strips, there were desks with numerous awards all over them, and the far wall sported five glass presentation cases with matching red clothing in them. They reminded me of the suits that so many a superhero had worn in the comics of my early childhood. Robert pulled up a chair and gestured for me to take a seat, although The Professor was forced to stand.

"Ok, then." I began, looking around at the cluttered room. "What is all this stuff?"

"Let me explain." Robert offered, taking in a deep breath. "We're supers."

"So let me get this straight." I said for the fifth time in as many minutes. Robert had graciously taken the time to tell us everything about him and his family of 'supers', but I was still having a hard time grasping all of this. "You're Mr. Incredible, right? With the power of super strength. Your wife is Elasti-Girl, and can stretch into any shape. Your kids also have a variety of powers, including invisibility, super speed and force-field manipulation."

"In a nutshell, yes." He assured me. "But being from BEN, I'm sure you're well aware of things like this, right?"

"Oh- Of course." I stuttered. "We encounter supers all the time, don't we-" I looked around and saw that The Professor had gone to the opposite wall. He was examining a comic strip that depicted Mr. Incredible defeating an army of miniature robots.

"Alright." He said, speaking for the first time in a long while. "You're supers, I get that. Now if there are all these so-called 'superheroes' living here in Metroville, and indeed the rest of the world, are there not also villains? Super villains, you might say?"

"Yes, of course there are." Robert confirmed. "There's Bomb Voyage, Syndrome, Voltage. I could go on."

"Wait, wait, wait." The Professor said quickly. "Voltage? I'm sure I've heard that somewhere before. Who is he when he's not being a super villain?"

"His real identity, you mean?" Came a voice from outside the room, and in walked Helen. She stood beside her husband and put a hand around his shoulder, handing him a mug of hot coffee.

"I'm sorry, did you want one?" She said to The Professor and I.

"No thank you." The Professor answered for both of us. "So, this Voltage fellow. You know his real identity?"

"I certainly do, yes." She assured us. "Before Robert and I were together, I tangled with him a couple of times."

"Sorry, hold on." I interrupted. "Professor, how is any of this relevant to-"

"Listen, John." He said abruptly, pulling me to one side. "Excuse us for a second." He said, smiling back over at Robert and Helen.

"I have a feeling, John, that we were brought here by means of wormhole technology." He informed me. "And believe it or not, even in an infinite universe, you sometimes end up hearing familiar names."

"What's your point?" I inquired. "Do you know Voltage? Or at least, know of him?"

The Professor nodded. "I think I do." He said, then turned back to the others.

A few minutes later, we were on our way over to the other side of Metroville. Robert had kindly offered to drive us to our destination. We were looking for a certain Doctor Nosson Rotcod, also known as Voltage, whose name was, for some reason, a palindrome. Seriously, how did that happen? Did his parents know he'd be a doctor and call him Nosson? Then how did the surname just happen to be 'Doctor' backwards? Anyway, now wasn't the time to think about that. Now was the time to find this man. The Professor reckoned that he had heard the name once, some time ago, and knew that he was a theoretical physicist, or something like that. The whole idea was based on a lot of big 'ifs', but The Professor suspected that Rotcod had something to do with the wormhole that brought the TASM here.

We eventually came to a long, winding road up the side of a hill. A mansion of sorts was perched right at the very top. I knew at once that this must be the place which Voltage called his home. Robert stopped the car a short distance away from the driveway of the huge house, and quickly slipped his supersuit over his clothes. He pressed a huge red button on the car's dashboard and a radio crackled to life.

"You there, honey?" He said into the speaker, to which Helen could be heard replying at the other end of the line. "Ok, if anything goes wrong, I'll send for you." Then, he pressed the button again, and the radio turned of with a click.

"Ok." Robert said as we walked over to the courtyard of the mansion. "Leave this to me." A wide double-gate stretched between two pillars of brick at the edge of the garden, with a long hedge on each side. Robert ran out towards the gate whilst The Professor and I crouched behind the hedge and hid. I looked on in amazement as Robert, or Mr. Incredible as he now was, tore the gate clean of it's hinges. Well, not quite clean, he pulled up part of the wall. Anyway, he then proceeded to tear an iron railing from the gate and bend it perfectly in half, leaving a sharp, two-pronged fork. Fork in hand, he charged straight across the courtyard to the doors of the enormous house.

"Remind me again why we couldn't just sneak in?" The Professor asked as the commotion continued.

"Beats me," I shrugged, "Guess stealth isn't really his thing. If only his daughter were here…"

"What?" The Professor scolded, slapping me on the arm. "This is no time for you to start fantasizing, John."

I was appalled by this implication, so replied: "Actually, I said that because she can turn _invisible_ , OK?" Then, through gritted teeth: "And how do you know about that, anyway?"

"Oh, please." He chuckled. "I'm not an idiot, John. I saw the way you looked at her when she answered the door. And in the living room." I would have protested against this accusation if it weren't for Robert rushing back over to us.

"We're in!" He grinned, gesturing towards the house. We peered from behind our protective hedge and noticed that the entire front garden had been utterly destroyed. But the front door was open, so we were grateful. Robert then ran towards the building with the two of us in tow. I froze on the spot as soon as we entered, and The Professor looked equally shocked. Inside was a grand entrance hall, but it wasn't quite empty. In fact, we were met with what seemed like an entire battalion of armed men. Robert got straight to work. How he could take out that many men was a mystery, what with them all shooting towards him, but then again he was Mr. Incredible. Left, right and centre he knocked the men to the ground, but it seemed like there was an infinite supply. More came piling in to the entrance hall by the second, from the grand spiral staircase or the huge, arched corridors. I shook with fear the whole time, and while The Professor didn't show it, he was scared witless as well.

"We may need reinforcements!" Robert shouted as he battled on. I wasn't sure how we could help, but the others could. I raced out of the house and back towards the car. I pressed the huge red button on the dashboard once again, and suddenly heard Helen's voice.

"What's going on over there?" She asked immediately. "Is there trouble?"

"There's trouble." I replied. "Any chance you could pop over here and give us a hand?"

"We're on our way." She answered. I ran back to the house and was surprised to see that Robert had actually managed to successfully take out every single guard.

"You do realise I've already called the others?" I gasped. "Guess we won't need them now."

"You never know," Robert grinned, "There could be more guards." I looked around for The Professor, and noticed that he'd rushed down a corridor branching from the entrance hall. Obviously, I'd have to follow him.

The hall was marvelously constructed of pure white marble and golden arches. It was clear that whatever Doctor Nosson Rotcod did, there was money to be made from it. The Professor was heading for a door near the end of the corridor which was different from any other. Whilst the other doors were three meters high and made of solid mahogany, this one was a small, simple metal door. A plaque on the door revealed that it was actually the science lab. Perfect. Bursting through the door, I wasn't surprised to find it filled with yet more guards. Luckily, we still had Robert with us, but I could here the distinctive sound of men marching down the stairs in the entrance hall.

"Oh, great!" I yelled, the sound of gunfire drowning out my words. "Just brilliant! Professor, do you know what you're looking for in this science lab."

"I've got a pretty strong idea, yes." He replied. "I'll get right on it." He ducked for cover and sprinted across the room, squeezing between the armed guards with ease. Meanwhile, the footsteps from down the corridor seemed to have been replaced with even more gunfire. I turned to look and was glad to see that the rest of the Parr family had arrived. Dash ran around and punched the guards with amazing speed, Helen contorted her body in a variety of directions to kick the guns from their hands, and Violet… come to think of it, Violet was gone. I'd seen her there, just two seconds ago.

"Whoa, what's going on!" I heard a shout from inside the science lab. The Professor came out of the room, apparently being dragged, although I could see no-one dragging him. Then I realised. It was Violet. She could turn invisible. I saw The Professor slump to the ground as if he had been let go, and then felt a tap on my shoulder.

"What do you need?" A voice came from beside me. It was definitely Violet.

"Uh…" I thought, not quite sure myself what we were looking for. "Just anything you can find on Doctor Rotcod." I think she may have nodded at this point, although I couldn't see, but I did feel her leave my side.

"John," The Professor began, looking very frustrated. "We need to get out of here as soon as we get what we need. It's madness!" I nodded in agreement, as both in front and behind me, the family of supers we'd met not half an hour ago was fighting off an ever-coming hoard of security guards.

"Who has this many guards anyway?" I shouted.

"Someone with a lot of secrets." The Professor assured me. "But I think Voltage fits the bill just fine." Suddenly, everything went quiet, as if the whole place had been muted.

"What's going on?" I asked Robert, who was still in the science lab.  
"I'm guessing he's ran out of guards." He replied. Violet came running out of the room, now beginning to turn visible again. First her red leotard appeared, followed by her black gloves and boots, then finally her head. She held in her arms a laptop. I tried to stop her but she continued running, as did Robert and then even The Professor. I looked into the science lab behind and saw that a huge wave of water was cascading towards us. That explained why Voltage had stopped sending guards. He was trying to flood us out.

I sprinted down the hallway back to the entrance hall and towards the front door as the water splashed past. Bracing myself, I dived through it, and was startled to find that I'd landed right on top of Violet. For a brief moment, our eyes made contact, and we gazed at one another. The moment was cut short when The Professor dragged me off her to see if the laptop in her arms was still intact. Relieved to see it was, The Professor suggested we head back to the car. Robert agreed it was the best course of action, as did Helen. If we were in the car, we could safely examine the laptop.

The Professor wasted no time. As soon as he was back in the car, he flipped the laptop open.  
"Oh, great, there's a password." He groaned. "Why's there always a password."

"If it helps, a lot of people use their name backwards as a password." I offered.

"John, his name is a palindrome." He answered bluntly.

"Well, try his name forwards first," Dash interjected, "Then try it backwards."

"No, his name- Are you people not understanding any of this?" The Professor snapped. He then typed in the words 'DOC-COD', which surprisingly worked. The laptop flickered to life and an image appeared on the screen of a handheld device labeled the 'Wormhole Generator Mark III'. A number of files arranged below the image revealed that the device was stored within the mansion itself, in a secret underground vault.

"I'll go and find it." Robert said boldly. "They can throw what they like at me and not even stop me."  
"No, I'll go." Dash said. "I'll be out before you know I've even gone in."

"I think I should go." Violet offered. "They'll never even see me." This seemed to be the most sensible idea, so Violet went. She did ask for someone to go with her though. You can guess who volunteered.

We snuck back into the house as silently as possible. The wave of water had now passed, and left behind it a trail of destruction. The secret vault's location had been disclosed in one of the laptop's files, and we soon managed to locate it. Neither of us spoke much as we wandered the great mansion. This was partly because it felt awkward, but mostly because we were desperately trying to not get caught.

Upon reaching the room which contained the secret vault, I volunteered to type in the password 'DOC-COD' once again, opening the door to the room and another door at the opposite side of the room. We went through cautiously and snuck through the second door down a spiral staircase which descended into complete darkness. Violet located a light switch in the room and flipped it, only for us to discover that the whole place was protected with tripwires.

"Great," I said. "Now what?"

"Just leave it to me." Violet replied, before hopping over the first tripwire, rolling beneath the second, and reaching over the third. This continued until she had reached the far side of the room and obtained a box which, sure enough, contained the Wormhole Generator Mark III. It slightly resembled a large gun, with many buttons and dials on it.

"You're quite the gymnast." I remarked as Violet came back across the tripwires and handed me the box.

"Thanks very much." She chuckled, and set off back up the staircase. I followed her as quickly, yet quietly, as possible, and we were soon back up the staircase, out into the entrance hall and through the front door. Just as we reached the bottom of the garden, the ground beneath our feet began to shake. We dived for cover as the garden itself opened up, revealing a huge underground bunker.

From the bunker, which was fifty feet deep, and no less, rose an enormous ship, marked the 'DNR Archimedes', and armed with enough weapons to wipe out a small planet. A platform extended from the ship to the ground, and a man stepped out.

I now saw Doctor Nosson Rotcod for the first time, wearing his own super suit, deep green with a huge white 'V' on the front. This was the Voltage we'd heard about. As he stepped down onto the lawn, I snatched the box from Violet and turned towards the car. The others stood by the safety of the vehicle, not one of them daring to come over. It must have been a far worse situation than I could have ever imagined. I knew that this device was our ticket out of here. But I couldn't leave her. I placed the box on the floor and turned back to face Voltage.

"Well, then." He bellowed, in a deep, throaty voice. "Been stealing my inventions, eh?"

"Yes, we have." I said with sudden confidence. "And there's nothing you can do about it!"

"Oh, really?" He chuckled. "And why's that?" But rather than answer him, I simply lifted the wormhole generator out of the box. "No." He said, suddenly worried. "You can't use that thing! You cannot begin to comprehend it's power!"

"Can't be too hard," I began, pointing the device directly at the ship. "What's this button do?" I pulled the trigger hard and a spectacular beam of purple light shot out, seemingly erasing the ship from existence. Voltage screamed in pain as the entire thing was completely disintegrated. A huge explosion followed, and Violet and I dived for cover. After this, we stood, and I found myself unable to resist embracing her in a hug.

"Ahem!" Robert's stern voice suddenly broke the embrace. "You do know that's my daughter, right?" I let go of Violet immediately and gave Robert an apologetic look. But his stern face soon softened and he chuckled for a while. The Professor ran up to me and took the Wormhole Generator Mark III from my hands.

"You know how to use that?" I asked. The Professor nodded.

"Although, it seems you're not too bad with it yourself." He smiled. He turned a small dial on the back of the gun. "We won't need a lift back, thanks. We can get back to the TASM with this." He placed a finger over the trigger.

"Wait." I said just before he pulled it. "Can I just say something?"

"Fine." He sighed. "But make it quick."

"Robert, Helen." I began. "You're both quite… incredible people. And your children are no exception." I smiled at the kids, particularly Violet, who returned the expression. "As you may have realised since my arrival, we're not from BEN. In fact, I don't even know what 'Nvestigation' is! But one thing's for certain. We did need your help. And you gave it to us. Thank you."

"It's no problem." Helen said cheerfully. "It's just what we do." I smiled and nodded to The Professor, who readied his finger on the trigger once again.

"Oh, and Violet?" I said, just before he fired up the contraption.

"Yes?" She asked, smiling boldly, as if she already knew what I was going to say.

"I… I think I like you a bit." She laughed aloud and waved us on, along with the rest of the family, as we slowly faded from existence.

 **YOU HAVE BEEN WATCHING T*A*S*M**

 **WRITTEN, EDITED and PRODUCED by THEMANFROMMUDOS**

 **PUBLISHED by FANFICTION**

 **STARRING:**

 **THE PROFESSOR ….. VYKKER © ODDWORLD INHABITANTS**

 **JOHN SMITH as HIMSELF**

 **DOCTOR NOSSON ROTCOD/VOLTAGE and QUITE A LOT OF GUARDS**

 **BOB, HELEN, DASH, and VIOLET PARR ….. © DISNEY/PIXAR**

 **PROPS and SETS:**

 **METROVILLE ….. © DISNEY/PIXAR**

 **VOLTAGE'S MANSION and THE DNR ARCHIMEDES**

 **THE TASM ….. TARDIS © BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION**

 **TITLECARD ARTWORK:**

 **TARDIS IMAGE © BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION**

 **VYKKERS LABS LOGO © ODDWORLD INHABITANTS**

 **M*A*S*H STYLISATION © COLUMBIA BROADCASTING SYSTEM**


	4. Episode 4: Slender Men and Slander, Then

**ASHBRIDGE INHABITANTS PRESENTS…**

 **AN** _ **AL**_ **IVE EXPERIENCE…**

 **T*A*S*M (TIME AND SPACE MACHINE)**

 **EPISODE 4: SLENDERMEN and SLANDER, THEN**

"Unbelievable!" The Professor bellowed as the TASM once again began to hurtle through space and time. "What exactly were you playing at, John?" I'd been silent for a while, but decided to speak up for myself.

"Look, I don't see what the problem is." I told him confidently. "I liked her, alright? It didn't jeopardise the mission, did it?"

"Actually, yes it did jeopardise the mission!" The annoyed Vykker snapped. "Thanks to your incompetence with the Wormhole Generator Mark III, Voltage could still be out there somewhere!"

"What are you talking about?" I asked. "I disintegrated him." What The Professor was saying didn't really seem to add up.

"Wrong, John. Wrong!" He continued to shout unreasonably. "It creates wormholes, it doesn't kill people. You simply teleported him and his ship to some other place in the universe! He could still be out there!"

"Will you stop SHOUTING at me?!" I interrupted. "Anyway, that had nothing to do with Violet."

"Oh, really?" The Professor said, much calmer now. "Tell me, John, whilst you were showing off your masculinity to this girl, did you ever once examine the controls of the device? Did you?" I fell silent. I hated to admit it, but he had a point. I'd been too busy trying to woo Violet to even figure out how to use the Wormhole Generator. Had I really allowed a dangerous super villain to escape? My thoughts were soon interrupted when I heard the unmistakable sound of the TASM touching down. We had landed.

"Ok." The Professor said coolly. "Ok. I'll let this one slide. I suppose it's too late to do anything about it now."

"Thank you." I replied. "Anyway, where are we?"

"I'll give you one guess." He said. Of course. How predictable.

"Earth, by any chance?" I inquired, although it was a pointless question.

"Yes. It's seemingly the same Earth that we've just departed from, though. Albeit in a different time period." The Professor explained. "Looks like we've traveled several years in time, but only a few thousand miles in space. How odd." The Professor used the word 'odd' very loosely here. For instance, he never referred to either himself or the TASM as odd. But when something as comparatively ordinary as this happened, it was indeed 'odd'.

"Well, let's go out and have a look, shall we?" The Professor said, heading towards the door. But before he could open it, three loud knocks resounded through the control room. The Professor looked rather puzzled at this. Clearly, somebody was knocking on the door of the TASM. But how had they managed to find us? The TASM was supposed to be disguised, wasn't it? At that moment, another three knocks could be heard. Short, sharp, but echoing tremendously through the open console area.

"Suppose we'd better get that." I said, breaking the tension.

"Yeah." The Professor replied. "I suppose we should." And with that, he walked closer to the door.

"Wait, Professor." I said, just as his two-clawed hand reached the door handle. "Maybe I'd better answer it." I stepped forwards and The Professor stepped aside as I reached out with my much more unremarkable human hand to open the door.

I opened it just a crack at first, not wanting whoever was knocking to see into the TASM. I discovered that we had landed in a small village. We were in the middle of a street, in fact, probably nestled between two houses. The man at the door appeared middle–aged, quite tall, with short, brown hair and dry, colourless lips. He lacked many distinguishing features, save for his unusually vibrant green eyes. Even the whites of them had an unnerving lime tint. I simply stared at him in silence for a few moments, before he introduced himself.

"Good day to you, sir." The man said in a dull voice, reaching out a hand to shake my own. "I am Detective Inspector Jerome Yales of the Oakside Police Department. I understand there's been a burglary in the area."

"Burglary?" I asked. "On this street?"

"Yes, indeed. Unfortunately, nobody's safe from crime, sir. But we do our best." He smiled through slightly yellow, but perfectly aligned teeth. "Now, I've been going around all the houses on the street, including your own, to see if anything else has been stolen."

"House?" I inquired, quite puzzled for a moment. I stepped out of the TASM and shut the door behind me, before walking towards the curb and turning around to see… a house. A whole house. Huge and unmistakable. Had the TASM really disguised itself as an entire building? I saw a plaque on the door which read '25 Vernon Lane'. Was that where we were? And if so, where was the real 25 Vernon Lane?

"Sir?" Came the Inspector's voice, bringing me back into reality. "All I would like to know is if anything was stolen?"

"Uh, no. I don't think so." I said, rushing back towards the TASM. "Thanks for coming round, though." And with that, I stepped inside, and slammed the door behind me.

"Ah, John." The Professor called. "I think I've discovered why we've been prevented from leaving this planet. It seems that some other time-traveling entity is in the area."

"Professor, why has the TASM disguised itself as a house?" I asked, completely ignoring the Vykker's previous statement.

"A house? Are you sure?" He said. He then proceeded to walk to the door and open it, stepping out into the street in much the same way that I had. After looking around, he came back in.

"Well?" I asked.

"It's not how it seems." The Professor explained. "The TASM has simply disguised itself as a front porch. The rest of the house is separate. We're not even on Vernon Lane."

"Then what's the plaque all about?" I inquired.

"An identification method." He replied. "Vernon Lane, VL. Vykkers Labs, that's where the TASM's from. Vykker Labs 25."

"I see." I assured him. "So if you ever lose the TASM, it can be found by looking for the ID code?"  
"Precisely." He answered. "The car in Metroville? Number plate 'VY20 LA5'. The locker on Sevastapol? Locker 'VL 00025'. The-"  
"Ok, I get it." I interrupted. "So, why are we here again?"

"Are we getting close?" I asked between breaths. For the last hour, we'd wandered through the woods not far behind the houses. The Professor had pulled out his tracking device once again, and we were searching for the source of some 'temporal energy', as he called it. This was similar, I was told, to the energy that was responsible for forcing the TASM to land in Metroville in the first place.

"I don't know." The Vykker answered shrilly. "The signal keeps moving. And I keep getting another reading. Must be scrambling the signal."

"So what does that mean?" I pondered aloud. "Someone's carrying temporal energy around with them?"

"Not quite." The Professor explained. "Someone, or indeed something, is utilising the energy. This could be through a handheld device or a full-size machine." I understood that the full-size machine he was talking about was in fact the TASM.

After a short while, the signal stopped. Completely. It didn't disappear, but it stopped moving. Not far from our position, either. I felt a sudden cold shiver shoot down my spine. What could be producing this energy, I thought? All of a sudden, I heard the sound of something crashing through the trees in front of us. Leaves crunched and branches snapped, until the thing was visible less than a few feet away. It remained in the shadows for a moment, so I couldn't get a good look. But then it stood, on two legs, and I realised that it was actually DI Jerome Yales. And he looked awful. His smart police uniform was now tattered, his face was bruised and cut. And he had a truly disturbed look in his eye, as if he'd seen something that had made his very blood boil.

"You!" He shouted, pointing directly at me. "I recognise you. And-" He turned to look at The Professor, and for a moment fell completely silent. "Ok…" He eventually continued. "I don't know what the hell _you_ are, but I've seen too much today to question it. I do know that _you're_ a human. I spoke to you the other day, remember? About the burglary?" The other day? What was he talking about?

"Yes, I remember." I replied cautiously. In his current state, I didn't want to provoke him too much. "What happened to you, Inspector?"

"What happened?" He said, the laughed as if I'd asked the most stupid question you could possibly imagine. "Kid, what didn't happen?" He took a deep breath, as if preparing to tell a long story.

"It was about three days ago, I think." He said. "When I'd finished visiting all of the houses on that street, I noticed one at the end which appeared abandoned. I went and knocked on the door, just to be safe. Nobody answered, but I heard strange noises inside, so I opened the door myself and went in. What I discovered in there was truly awful. There were bodies. Lots of them. Murdered. Mutilated. I… I don't want to talk about it too much. But that wasn't all. I heard sobbing. From upstairs. I went up to see who was up there." He suddenly paused.

"Inspector?" I asked. "Who did you find?"

"It looked like a young girl from behind." He explained. "Possibly early teens. As I approached her, she turned to look at me. Her face was grey. She had no eyes, just dark holes where her eyes should have been. I wasn't going to stay any longer. I turned and ran out of the house, only to discover that it had become dark. There are no lampposts on that street, you understand. So I couldn't see a thing. Anyway, I must have accidentally stumbled into the woods. That's when I saw… That's when… I…" He suddenly froze on the spot.

"Inspector?" I pressed on. "What did you see, Inspector?" The man simply raised one arm and pointed over my shoulder. I turned around, and saw exactly what he was indicating to me. And it was horrifying.

It was tall. Really tall. It looked like a man, but it's arms reached almost to the ground. It's face was… well, it was non-existent. By which I mean it had no face. No eyes, no mouth, no nose or ears or hair. Just a blank canvas of a head. I heard a loud beeping from beside me, the sound of The Professor's tracker going wild.

"Professor…" I whispered to the Vykker, who was surprisingly also rooted to the spot. "Is this what we were looking for?"

"Yes." He whispered back. "But under the circumstances, I think it might be best if we studied it some other time."

"Agreed." I nodded. "So what's the plan?" But I knew his answer before it even came. The plan was: 'Run'. So we did.

Whatever breath I'd managed to conserve from the agonising walk we'd just endured soon depleted. The three of us now bolted through the trees with no hesitation. I looked back to see if the slender creature was still on our tail. Although he stood perfectly still, he had indeed moved from his initial position. As we continued to run, and I continued to look back, the thing was still close behind us, every time. It moved as fast as we did, without taking a single step. Perhaps this was something to do with the temporal energy. Perhaps the creature was genetically enhanced to teleport, allowing it to travel at great speed.

After another few minutes of running, we burst into a clearing. The Professor collapsed to the ground, with my forward propulsion forcing me over him. The two of us crashed to the ground, and Inspector Yales also fell to the floor nearby. Getting to my feet, I looked around and saw that the creature was nowhere in sight. I also saw that we were now just a few metres away from a short but wide building. The walls were metal, and there were no windows. There was a door into the building to our left. As I looked on, the door was swung open. Two men and a woman, clad in white lab coats, ran out and quickly escorted us into the building, slamming the door shut behind them.

My head spun wildly after the sudden turn of events was forced upon us. I looked to see The Professor, or Inspector Yales, but it was pitch black. Wherever we were, it certainly didn't seem like an inviting place.

"Ah, Inspector," came a voice from the darkness. The whole room was suddenly illuminated, accompanied with the loud click of a light switch. I looked in the direction of the noise, and saw a man who's face I somewhat remembered, although I wasn't sure where from. He wore a lab coat, much like those that the other people had worn, with a logo emblazoned on the chest which read 'A to B Industries'.

"Who are you?" Inspector Yales asked, taking the words right of my mouth.

"Mr. Yales, I understand you were investigating a burglary in the Oakside village area." The man continued, ignoring the Inspector's previous question. "Did you find the culprit?"

"What do you mean?" He asked, puzzled. "Of course not, I never even got back to the station, thanks to… that thing."

"Thing?" The man inquired. "Mr. Yales, was this thing by any chance… Tall, humanoid, faceless?" The Inspector's face fell. I could see the fear in his eyes once again. How did this man know exactly what we had seen?

"Now look here." The Professor interjected, after remaining quite for a short while. "I've seen some pretty strange things in my field of work, b-"

"Himself included." I pointed out. The man in the lab coat nodded in agreement, although he didn't seem to question the appearance of the Vykker in any way.

"Yes, thank you John." The Professor continued, shaking his head in disapproval. "Anyway, I've seen some pretty strange things in my field of work, but never anything like that. Somehow that creature is harnessing temporal energy. Like it's teleporting through self-created wormholes."

"Well, that's the gist of it." The man in the lab coat said again. "Presumably, it's some kind of defense mechanism. Anyway, Mr. Yales here has been on the run from the subject for a couple of days, isn't that right, Mr. Yales?" The Inspector nodded. "But from our records, it seems that he investigated that burglary just this morning."

I tried to piece everything together in my head. From what the man in the lab coat was saying, it seemed that that thing we'd seen had taken the Inspector out of time itself, for no less than a day or two. What interested me, though, was that the man in the lab coat referred to the creature as the 'subject'. With this in mind, I asked him how he knew about the thing we'd seen in the woods.

"Ah, the subject." He said, repeating that word once more. "Believe me, boy, we know more about that thing than you can imagine. We captured it, from a forest in Europe, actually. We've been studying it's biology for almost two years now, trying to understand it's brilliant 'timeless' properties, attempting to re-create them in a handheld teleportation device. But three days ago, it broke containment. We hadn't seen it since. We thought the trail had gone cold until today, when Mr. Yales here managed to successfully avoid being killed it." The solemn look on the Inspector's face vouched for that fact. Now everything started to make more sense.

"So, presumably you're the leader of this project." The Professor said. "What's your name?" Clearly, like me, The Professor felt that we had somehow encountered this man before.

"My name?" The man said. "Oh, yes, how rude of me. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Doctor Nosson Rotcod, leader of the A to B Industries Scientific Research Division, and inventor of the Wormhole Generator Mark I."

I couldn't believe it. Rotcod? Voltage, alive? Surely not. But he seemed so different to the Doctor Rotcod that we'd met back in Metroville. Somehow… younger. Younger. That was it! It all made sense. This was Rotcod's past, the development of the original Wormhole Generator. Thinking about this gave me an idea. I grabbed The Professor and pulled him to one side, urging Doctor Rotcod to excuse us for a moment.

"Professor, it's him," I whispered excitedly. "It's Voltage. Don't you see? We can stop him!"

"Whoa, calm down John," He whispered back to me. "It's not all as simple as that. If we kill Rotcod now or something, he'll never even become Voltage in the future."

"But that's good, isn't it?" I asked. "Problem solved." It made sense in my head. Why couldn't The Professor see the genius behind this plan?

"No, not solved." He assured me. "Believe me, John. Whilst what happened in Metroville may be in Rotcod's future, it's still in our past. We can't start interfering with our own timeline, or the consequences could be severe. This, here. It would never have happened." He gave me a very serious look, and I realised that he was right. We couldn't change our own past without impacting our future. Classic time travel paradox.

"And anyway, no killing." He said sternly. "I've told you that. Didn't stop you from boldly 'disintegrating' him to impress some girl last time, did it?"

"Oh, for god's sake, will you just let that go?" I snapped. "It's getting old having you nagging me about it all the time. Anyway, what can we do?"

"Well, for now we should tread lightly." He explained. "The slightest change to this place could have incomprehensible ramifications on the timeline." I wasn't quite sure what ramifications were, but judging by the way he said it, they weren't good.

Looking around, I could now see that Doctor Rotcod and Inspector Yales had wandered off down a long corridor. The Professor and I followed them, finding ourselves in a room with nothing but a desk and four chairs in it. On the desk was a tape recorder, which made it seem that this room existed for the purpose of interviewing people. Perhaps there had been others who'd seen this creature, who knew? Anyway, Rotcod walked in first and sat down on the far side of the desk. He gestured for the Inspector to take a seat, but asked that we stand in the corner of the room, and remain silent during the interview. To enforce this, two armed guards were stationed at the door to the room. They were unmistakably the same guards which Rotcod would later use to defend his mansion from intruders when he became Voltage.

"Now, Jerome. Can I call you Jerome?" Rotcod asked, pressing a button on the tape recorder.

"You can." Inspector Yales answered. "But look here, I'm the police officer. Why should I have to answer to you?"

"I can assure you, Mr. Yales, that it would be much easier for all of us if you would co-operate." Rotcod said, with an awkward smile. "All you need to know, Inspector, is that this creature must be captured at all costs. And you can help us with that. Now please, tell us what you saw."

"Ok." He sighed, too worn out to even question anything anymore. "It was really tall, arms almost to the ground. And it's face… that face. That goddamn face!" He yelled, suddenly angered and emotional. "But no, there was no face! There were NO EYES!"

Rotcod urged Jerome to remain calm; something which I wish The Professor had told me to do during our last encounter with the Doctor. But he'd suddenly lost it. He stood up and started waving his arms frantically, shouting that 'it' was coming for him. This all ended with an abrupt shriek, and he passed out, falling to the ground. Everyone in the room suddenly gathered around his unconscious body.

"Poor guy." The Professor said. "To see what he's seen, I don't envy."

"He said it was coming for him." I pointed out. "What does that mean?" But my question didn't need an answer. As soon as I looked up, I knew exactly what he meant.

The door out into the corridor was now wide open, and the lights flickered abnormally. But what I saw was unmistakable. It was the creature. The one we'd seen in the woods. The one Jerome had just described. It had come.

"It's there!" I shouted, pointing out into the corridor. In a flash, everyone was on their feet. The two guards ran out into the corridor, with Rotcod right behind them. The Professor and I helped a slightly dazed Jerome back to his feet, and the three of us also ran out of the room.

"You can't stop it!" The Professor yelled, seeing the two guards readying their guns.

"We can try!" One of them said boldly, and they opened fire. But The Professor was right. The creature simply absorbed the bullets like a black hole of death. It moved forwards, zipping from point to point with no intermediate steps. The gunners ceased firing to reload. Then it was right in front of them. It stretched it arms out to the two men. Within an instant, they were completely gone.

"I don't like this!" I shouted between breaths, as myself and the remaining members of the group sprinted down the corridor towards the building's exit. Reaching the end, I forced my way through the double doors, with the other three hot on my tail. Once the last person had bolted through the door, I slammed it shut.

"That won't help, John." The Professor said. "Nothing will stop that thing, you know." Although I knew he was right, shutting the door still made me feel safer.

"No." I said. "There is one thing we can do. But we'll need the TASM." I saw The Professor's eyes light up. He knew that it could work. The prison cell on board, the one we'd used to trap the Xenomorph on Sevastapol. It was inescapable, even if you did have the ability to teleport. We could simply trap it in the cell, and then release it elsewhere.

"Sorry, boys." Rotcod said, interrupting my train of thought. He pulled from behind his back a gun-like device. The Wormhole Generator Mark I. "But I can't let word get out about this thing, now can I?"

"Do your worst." I said confidently. "You can't kill us with that thing."

"Oh, really?" replied Rotcod, before firing of a shot at the still wincing Inspector Yales. I shouldn't have said that. "I think you'll find my friend that this device, whilst incapable of killing people directly, _can_ be used to teleport you to, say… the vacuum of space. Or a very high cliff."

"Oh." I said. "Well in that case, please don't shoot." Rotcod laughed. He was insane, I was sure.

"You want to know the truth, kid?" He chuckled. "You want me to tell you and your prune-headed pet here the whole story?"

"Please." I nodded quickly, before The Professor had time to comprehend that insult.

"This thing that I caught. This being." He said. "The truth is, it was never really trapped. It can escape from any containment you can imagine. And it did. I tried everything to keep it under control." He suddenly began to weep uncontrollably. "You have no idea how many people have died at the hands of this being. How many lives lost! My family, my friends. Everyone I knew and loved, gone. I've come so close to losing everything." Tears streamed down Rotcod's face wildly now. He was genuinely upset. Terrified. Alone in the world. Perhaps this was what would later drive him to become a super villain. But now wasn't the time for thinking. We had to act.

The Professor made the next move. He lunged towards Rotcod and tore the Wormhole Generator Mark 1 from his hands, knocking him to the ground. He then stepped back quickly and shouted for me to get ready. I placed a hand on the gun and braced myself for the teleportation. But at that moment, the sound of static rang out through the clearing. I looked over at Rotcod and saw that the creature was now right behind him. I yelled to him to duck as a spectacular beam of white light smashed the ground beneath our feet, and we were gone.

All of a sudden, we were back aboard the TASM. No Rotcod, no creature. No Yales. The Professor was automatically at the control panel, ready to take off.

"Will Rotcod be OK?" I asked, still in confusion at the events that had just unraveled. "He won't die, will he, we can't have changed time, can we, I-"

"John, John." The Professor said calmly. "Do not fret. We're still here, aren't we?" He was right. We were still alive. Time hadn't re-written itself.

"So that means that…" I began.

"The Doctor survived," The Professor nodded. "He escaped the creature. According to my records, he spent the next decade searching for it, scouring the Earth to try and bring it down. To prevent it from bringing any more harm. But it was futile. So he gave up, and turned to a life of crime. As for the creature, it's long gone. Teleported off-world, I reckon. But it'll still be out there somewhere. Seeking it's next victims."

I looked onto the screen of one of the TASM's many monitors, out into the vast expanse of space as we took off. And I wondered: where had it gone? Where had this terrifying wonder of nature disappeared to? And what planet, what civilization, and what individual would it find next?

"Who knows?" I said quietly to myself. "Who knows?"

 **YOU HAVE BEEN WATCHING T*A*S*M**

 **WRITTEN, EDITED and PRODUCED by THEMANFROMMUDOS**

 **PUBLISHED by FANFICTION**

 **STARRING:**

 **THE PROFESSOR ….. VYKKER © ODDWORLD INHABITANTS**

 **JOHN SMITH as HIMSELF**

 **A REALLY TALL GUY as SLENDER ….. © BLUE ISLE STUDIOS and PARSEC PRODUCTIONS**

 **DI JEROME YALES and THE OAKSIDE POLICE DEPARTMENT**

 **DOCTOR NOSSON ROTCOD and THE A TO B INDUSTRIES SCIENTISTS & GUARDS**

 **PROPS and SETS:**

 **OAKSIDE VILLAGE ….. OAKSIDE PARK© BLUE ISLE STUDIOS and PARSEC PRODUCTIONS**

 **A TO B INDUSTRIES SCIENCE DIVISION RESEARCH FACILITY**

 **THE TASM ….. TARDIS © BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION**

 **TITLECARD ARTWORK:**

 **TARDIS IMAGE © BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION**

 **VYKKERS LABS LOGO © ODDWORLD INHABITANTS**

 **M*A*S*H STYLISATION © COLUMBIA BROADCASTING SYSTEM**


End file.
